During the only practice before qualifying, the no. 21 was scored 41st fastest and dealing with a loose handling situation. After practice the team made changes to the car to tighten it up in preparation for qualifying.

The pressure was on during qualifying Friday evening as Marcos made a lap that may not have put the team at the top of the scoreboard, but he got the job done. As he was going into turn four, he tagged the wall but was able to hold onto the race car and took the checkered flag. His lap time of 41.099 seconds, put the no. 21 on the starting grid in 40th position.

Marcos commented on his run, “We’re in the race. That’s all that matters. We had a bad practice. It was just really tough for me to get up to speed here and the guys overcompensated for me trying to tighten the car up. I didn’t want to lift coming off of turn four. I knew I had to stay in it to try and get the lap completed and I hit the fence, and then I had to lift, so I did a pretty bad job there. But we’re in the race and that’s all that counts. I’m real excited about it.”

Marcos spoke about the state of the team and its effort to move forward, “I’ve got the highest respect for the Wood Brothers. They’re down with their team, but they’re building themselves back. It’s just great to be part of it because they’re really putting some stuff together and I’m excited for them.”